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Some experts believe these particles are a major contributor to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. In Colorado, for example, restaurants are required to install soot trapping grates on their exhaust systems, while residences are only permitted the use of wood stoves on a limited basis.
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State and federal air pollution efforts focus on power plants, factories and diesel trucks, but a significant source of particulate pollution in the metropolitan area comes from restaurant emissions — especially the smoke from wood-burning pizza ovens, said Monica Mazurek, a Rutgers University scientist who has been studying particulate matter in urban air for several decades.
Restaurants and wood-burning fireplaces and boilers discharge as much as 20 percent of the particulate matter in the air, and that smoke goes largely unchecked, researchers said.
"We basically have a brown cloud over this area from combustion sources," said Mazurek, a chemist in the university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The smoke from restaurants and other wood-burning sources, from residential fireplaces to wood-fired water heaters, is taking on new significance as officials look to further reduce emissions in North Jersey, where the air repeatedly fails several federal standards for particulate levels.
Restaurants and wood-burning fireplaces and boilers discharge as much as 20 percent of the particulate matter in the air, and that smoke goes largely unchecked, researchers said.
"We basically have a brown cloud over this area from combustion sources," said Mazurek, a chemist in the university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The smoke from restaurants and other wood-burning sources, from residential fireplaces to wood-fired water heaters, is taking on new significance as officials look to further reduce emissions in North Jersey, where the air repeatedly fails several federal standards for particulate levels.
Woudja like some soot with yer pizza
Why do they think restaurant exhaust systems have regularly scheduled cleaning? Or exist at all?
